


Ethereal Was The Night

by Caelys



Series: Folk Horror AU [2]
Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, One Shot, Short One Shot, Soft Horror, basically hauntung, does soft horror even exist? idk, ghost story, inner monologue, mystery and horror, tommy shelby's inner monogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:14:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26271715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caelys/pseuds/Caelys
Summary: Strange things are happening one year after John's death
Series: Folk Horror AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1937206
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Ethereal Was The Night

**Author's Note:**

> This is something completely different and new for myself - soft horror/thriller/mystery. I really don’t know if my experiment was successful. But it was fun to try. I will include another note at the end with a bit more explanations of what exactly was this thing and my inspiration behind it.  
> So I hope you'll enjoy it. As always, this is posted also on my tumblr page (also under the name caelys)

One year. It had been one fucking year. And he wasn’t there. He didn’t go. Thomas Shelby didn’t go to the graveyard on the anniversary of the death of his own fucking brother.

The entire family was there. Or what was remaining of it...

John was gone and so the word family was buried alongside him. 6 feet under. They were a family when their mother died. They were a family when their father left them.

Not anymore. Now ‘family’ was just another meaningless word...

The first of the brothers to die was the youngest. The only one who the War hadn’t changed. The last remaining piece of their lives before they went to France.

Tommy couldn’t go. He just couldn’t. The thought that he was the one responsible for the death of his brother never seemed to leave his head. Just like he had signed Grace’s death certificate, he did the same to John.

The blood of his family was getting thicker and thicker. Slowly covering his hands. His hands. His body. His heart.

They said blood was thicker than water. But the blood of family member was made out of lead and it was pulling him further and further down. Into the ethereal darkness.

And as much Tommy Shelby hated funerals there was one thing he hated more - and that were graveyards.

Funerals honored the life that the person had. Everything he did. Everyone he loved. They were a respectful way to say goodbye.

But graveyards were empty.

Soulless.

Truly a celebration of death and it’s inevitable victory over the living.

Everyone is remembered at the day of their funeral, but the second the body is covered and buried 6 feet under, it becomes no one. Down there everyone is equal. The soil surrounding the bodies is the same. All flesh rots and turns into nothing. Just the tombstones on top are different.

And so Thomas Shelby decided to run away from his duties. He spent the whole week down in London under the pretext that it was an urgent business journey. It was all bullshit and everyone knew it. 

And now it was 3 am and he was traveling back home. Under the almost black sky. No stars were visible. No moon. It was just him, the road and the lights of his car. The last man standing. Turn after turn the road was never ending. The horizon that usually separating what was above with what was below was nowhere to be seen. Living and the death. That night the horizon wasn’t there. Just infinite darkness.

A wolf howled somewhere not so far from the road. That was the only sound Tommy had heard for the past few hours besides the engine. That pulled him out of the trance like state he was in. It was typical for him to doze of his mind when he was driving. That was the only time he was truly able to turn off his brain. Thinking about absolutely nothing. Just mindlessly following the road until he arrived home.

And as he was brought back to reality and the road made another turn, he saw something. A figure dressed in white standing in the middle of the road, in the exact spot it separated itself into two. A woman wearing a long white dress. One that was weirdly reminding him of a wedding one. The white fabric softly reflecting the yellow light coming from the headlights.

And as the car approaches and the seconds passed by, Tommy started to realize that there was something inherently wrong with that situation. The woman was standing still in the middle of the road doing absolutely nothing. As if she was waiting.

She really was wearing a wedding dress, an oddly familiar one. And in fact was he was getting closer he recognized it. From those old photographs. There it was yellow and stained due to the years of exposure, but there in the middle of that road, was it. Undoubtedly, the wedding dress his mother wore all those years ago.

But the thing that sent a shiver down his spine was the blank expression on her face. No fear, no anticipation. Nothing. Just a plain stare.

She saw the car and didn’t move a millimeter. The 50 meters that the car had to pass to get to her took ages. It felt like she wasn’t getting closer, but at the same time she wasn’t running away. Both of them were standing at the same distance. Driving 50 kilometers per hour. 

Staring right at each other. Neither of them blinking.

And then against all good judgement, Thomas Shelby pressed the brakes. And suddenly within the blink of an eye, the car was standing right in front of the stranger.

A nod. He was accepted. Slowly almost in a dance like manner she moved. Step by step, moving to the left. Gently, with such a light steps that from Tommy’s point of view it looked like she was flying. Until she reached the passenger door. Without another word, she got in the car.

And Tommy couldn’t even open his mouth to say a thing. He could just stare at the strange woman that was entering his car. And in the very second she closed the door, it was like the air was sucked right out his lungs. Feeling all sorts of emotions all at once. And all of them were making him choke on every breath he took.

He couldn’t move his eyes from her veiny hands. Small and grayish looking. Her nails dirty and unkept.

“Thank you. Not many people would stop to help a stranger. Especially at night.” A soft smile appeared on her lips. Her lips, but not her eyes. They remained cold and blank. “You really must have a good heart underneath all that blood”

What the fuck was that supposed to mean? _Underneath all that blood._ Instinctively Tommy looked at his hands and torso. For once he was clean. So what was that about? Did she know him? No. Where was no way she knew who he was. He was more than 100 km away from Birmingham. On that lonely road he was no one. Just like her.

Tommy opened his mouth, ready to ask; but he didn’t. Instead a simple question left his lips “Where are you traveling?”

“Not far from where you’re going. I’ll tell you when to stop”

He felt a cold sweat forming on his back, as he heard that simple answer. Taking a long look at the woman, he couldn’t shook the feeling that something was terribly wrong. And after one last glance at the dress, Tommy was sure; it truly was his mothers.

And as Tommy pushed the gas and was ready to take off again, a lightning cut through the sky. Three seconds later just as the deafening thunder cut through the silence, it was like the sky was cut in half and the rain started pouring down.

“Fuck” Tommy hated driving when the weather was like that. Being absolutely honest, he hated to even be out when it was raining. It still reminded him of France, even after a decade. The rain. The mud. The trenches. And the sounds of bullets flying in every single direction.

“Be careful. Roads are dangerous at night, you never know what can jump in front of the car” The woman spoke without looking away from the windscreen.

Breath in. Breath out. Tommy’s right hand was shaking. That wasn’t normal. He was never shaking. Not then. Not in France. Not under medication. 

She turned her head to face him. And in that moment something clicked inside Tommy’s head. “Don’t be nervous” She shifted in a way moved her hand towards his knee.

She wasn’t blinking. She wasn’t fucking blinking. Not while being blinded by the car lights. Not when the lightning stroke. And not when she was talking to him.

“Don’t fucking touch me”

“If you wish so”

He finally took off again. Another lightning. Another thunder. Tommy wasn’t nervous, but it was noticeable how careful he was driving. But however careful he was, because of the darkness and the rain hitting against the windshield, it was hard to tell where the road was going.

Hunching more and more forward towards the steering wheel. This was one of the few times he really felt how bad his eyesight had gotten. Even though he refused to wear his glasses when he wasn’t reading, this time he regretted not taking them with him. The only visible thing in that moment were the crashing raindrops and the lighted road a few meters in front of the car.

Tommy didn’t realize how quiet everything had gotten. Silence in the car. Silence in the forest. No wolves. No owls. Nothing. The forest wasn’t full of life.

And in that moment just as the road was taking another turn, a deer ran right in front of the car. Clearly in distress, the animal was running away from something. As a hunter Tommy knew when an animal was running away to save it’s life. But that deadly something never followed. Leaving the animal to run from seemingly nothing.

“I did warn you. Be careful.” Did she know what was going to happen?

“I’ve traveled this road before. I know where we’re going” That wasn’t really the proper answer to her statement; but it wasn’t important. Tommy was way to preoccupied to have a proper conversation.

“Are you really sure?”

Yes! Yes he was sure. And he was getting irritated with that stranger. From that initial meeting to every single thing that came out of her mouth. But he couldn’t just expel her from the car. Not with that weather. Being honest it wasn’t the weather that was stopping him. It was something from within.

Instead he pushed the gas. Driving faster than before. A reckless decision, made in the spur of the moment. The rain wasn’t stopping, but neither was Thomas. Taking a curve after curve. Until he reached a crossroad.

An oddly familiar one. Same trees. Same rocks. Same darkness. In some ungodly way Thomas Shelby was back where he drove off.

Pushing the brakes as heard as humanly possible, the car started screeching in agony. Metal grinding on metal. The screams of the inanimate object were deafening.

That wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.

“Why were you out?” Tommy shouted. A gun left his vest and sat comfortably in his hand less than a second after he let go of the wheel.

“I was waiting” a stiff, blank answer.

“Waiting for?” The gun was loaded.

“You!”

“Liar!” And once again Tommy found himself holding a gun against someone’s head. Lately it was becoming a weekly occurrence. Cold metal against warm skin.

“Why would I lie to you, Thomas Shelby?”

He had never been more terrified hearing his own name.

This wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been.

“Get. Out.”

The door opened and the rain grew stronger.

Two people standing less than 2 meters apart. Soaking wet. The taillights making their shadows look taller and more inhumane looking. The gun clutched tightly in his hand.

“Who are you?” The shout sounded like a whisper.

No answer followed.

With the corner of his eye Tommy was able to spot only one shadow. His own. 

“Why did you leave your brother, Tommy? You’re the one who killed him.” In that second Thomas realized - her eyes weren’t blank. They were just cruel. Cruel and cold. Nothing else.

He pointed the gun right at her head.

Tommy heard a laughter, but her mouth didn’t move. “Before you shoot, look around.”

Tommy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This wasn’t real.

But it was real. He opened his eyes. But the road was gone. The rain had stopped. He was somewhere else.

He stood at the very place he avoided like the plague. Then Thomas Shelby opened his eyes, he was standing right in front of the grave of his brother.

The gun fell on the cold, wet ground with an almost silent thud.

“Why did you leave John?” Everything else was gone, but that stranger. Now she was standing right behind him, her lips almost touching his ear, as she whispered. “Did you forget him? Answer me!”

“I...” A deep breath

“I guess...” In that moment fell the first tear after the day of the funeral. But that didn’t faze the cold stone.

“I want to know the truth. Who are you?”

The woman took Tommy’s face in her hand. Her dirty nails digging his cheek. Pulling him closer to her face. And the very second before her lips touched his skin, she spat out 5 words. “The conscience that you lack”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I’ve done nothing. You’ve done worse to yourself, than I could ever do to you”

And before Tommy could say a thing the first light of the morning sun touched the horizon.

He was alone again.

Kneeling in the middle of the empty road.

Beside him - a loaded gun.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m glad to see you here, if you’ve gotten to the end. I hope you enjoyed my first mystery attempt and you probably have questions as to what exactly was that woman dressed in white. Well, her character is based on a spirit that is present is slavic folklore, called ‘Polunohtnica’. It’s an evil spirit that takes the form of a woman dressed in white (some people believe that the color white is also a color connected with death). It is out from midnight until the sun goes up again. And it does all sorts of evil things to whoever it meets. And yes, I took some creative liberties while creating this character.


End file.
